I loved those homes! I have them in my Sunset Valley up on that empty road. I remember seeing a preview for Sims 2 before it came out and they were demoing one of them and I was just in awe at what you could do in build mode.

And this house was awesome too, but it wasn't included in the final game. I think it was on the cliff by the bridge,

Update!I hope to get the rest of the Pleasantview houses done and dusted by Monday, so I can finalise the terrain sculpting for that quarter of the map, paint, decorate and route it all nice and purdy. My main hope is to keep Pleasantview as accurate as possible, but deviate a little with the other neighbourhoods. At the moment, Downtown will be assigned to the Late Night expansion pack, and while I'll keep all the lots where they are, I'll be expanding it so it's more open. It wasn't the nicest looking neighbourhood...Bluewater will have Ambitions and Generations-themed lots, including a lot of profession lots where all those stores used to go. I'll also add in a boardwalk/promenade along the waterfront, because it's perfect for one. I'll have to cut down some of the lots in Belladonna, because at the moment if you swing the camera over to that corner of the map you're bombarded with icons. I'm still not entirely sure how apartments work if they're outside the building rabbitholes, but I'll have a swing at remaking some of them. The Baba Yaga house will also be in Belladonna, I'll nestle it off to the side of the town.At the moment, there are 3 lots I haven't started yet and 4 lots I'm part way through.I haven't started the Goth mansion, the Pleasant house or the Dreamer house yet, and the mansion with the moat, the "Barbie house", the park and the Colonial-y house with the many decks I'm part way through.As soon as I'm finished Pleasantview, I'll have new pics up.

PICTURES! A TON OF THEM!Okay, so I haven't managed to get all of the Pleasantview lots done like I thought I would, I still have to finish the mansion with the moat, the Dreamer house and the park.However! I decided to ditch the TS2 road placement of Downtown, because I could not find a single way to make the city work well with the open neighbourhood, because it would look all ugly and grey and gross. So I planned out a new Downtown, which should work better seamlessly than the old one would have. I have a medium-sized park in the middle of the city, with some lovely promenades extending out all four sides. I still plan to remake the Downtown lots, but I just think it looks a lot nicer, and will be a lot more playable, with the new layout.Also, I can't stress enough that terrain sculpting/painting is in no way anywhere near completion. I know most world builders like to finish sculpting and painting before they move onto building, but it was starting to bug me seeing the empty neighbourhoods. I blasted the world with auto-paint (blasphemy, I know...) just to see how the game would render the terrain, so that's why the painting looks quite ugly.

Anyway, on with the pictures!

Spoiler:

Pleasantview, almost completed!Finally got around to finishing the Barbie house.Quite possibly the bitchiest house to remake, the Pleasant house!aaaand another familiar sight, the Goth manor.Cassandra's wedding arch courtesy of Generations!Empty house: The Red House With The Crazy PorchesEmpty house: The Yellow House on the HillEmpty house: The Yellow House with the Big Living RoomEmpty house: The White House with the Blue Front DoorEmpty house: The Green House with the Two-Storey WindowEmpty House: The Blue House with the Tiny Balcony

I'll put hidden tombs or rare spawners or something on these islands that only teleportable sims will be able to get to.

Presenting the newly-updated Downtown! Complete with ten promenade lots, a central park, city hall, the Not-So-Spanish Steps, two small courtyards and the beginnings of a starter lot!If you'll excuse the ugly-looking starter house, which I'm working on right now, I hope to have 4 of these squares in Downtown. Each block will have nine starter homes and a courtyard, all connected to each other through the sidewalks.The courtyard. I was going to make a community garden-type lot, but that really isn't suitable for a city...The beginnings of City Hall. Hopefully, I'll have another, smaller city hall in Bluewater Village, so sims don't have to commute for hours to get to a particular venue. There will be at least two of each rabbithole, spread out through the four neighbourhoods.The Not-So-Spanish Steps, which is a shameless copy of those stairs in Bridgeport.The small and humble central park. Rather than having something massive with water, a playground and a picnic area like Sunset Valley has, which is essentially what the 4-lot mega-park is for in Belladonna, I decided to do something quiet where sims can gather to read or busk or whatever they like.One of the 12 promenade lots. I've set these as 'hidden tombs', so hopefully they won't pop up with icons when you go into map view when playing (correct me if I'm wrong). If you haven't noticed, I've kind of adopted the Ornamental Plumb Tree as the city's tree. These aren't really very functional as proper lots, but they do make the city look quite nice.Obviously there will be buildings everywhere, but I hope to be able to pan the camera down to one side of the city and still be able to see City Hall when I'm done putting the other lots in.

Looking out over Downtown and Pleasantview, I think the world's coming along nicely. Of course, there's still a ton of work to be done terrain-wise, but I'd like to have all the lots sorted out so that I can sculpt and paint around them. Which is probably the complete opposite of what most world builders do, but eh. Each to their own.Looking out over Bluewater and Belladonna... the view's not so impressive. I'll be putting in a boardwalk along the Bluewater beach front, which is why the terrain looks so borked.

Can't wait til this is done. Really, it looks amazing. This better have subways, though. Driving from town to town is going to be impossible. But I like the idea of not having Subways, too, because that would force the quad-town aspect, where, you could play two families and rely completely off different resources. Maybe keep that in mind.

Can't wait til this is done. Really, it looks amazing. This better have subways, though. Driving from town to town is going to be impossible. But I like the idea of not having Subways, too, because that would force the quad-town aspect, where, you could play two families and rely completely off different resources. Maybe keep that in mind.

My whole idea behind it was pretty much based on this - trying to have four self-sustained neighbourhoods running simultaneously. That and the fact that it sounded cool. The neighbourhoods are quite small though, so that's why I've basically split the world into two, with Belladonna and Downtown on the mainland and Pleasantview and Bluewater on a seperate island. Hopefully, there'll be one of each venue type on each half, so sims can exist separately on their own section. Basically I wanted a world that could house both a small town atmosphere as well as a large city area, so you don't have to choose between the two. Also, there's a ton of free space so I can (and probably will) expand for future expansion packs. Expect the Kat family to have relocated to Bluewater Village.

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Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:47 pm

Profplumbob

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Re: Sims 2 to Sims 3: Pleasantwater Village, Belladonna City

Quote:

so hopefully they won't pop up with icons when you go into map view when playing (correct me if I'm wrong)

You're not wrong, just remember that when you go into "Edit Town" they don't show up there either. So if people want to edit them, they'll have to be savvy with cheats and/or mods to access them.

I hadn't remembered how small Sims 2 neighborhoods were until you managed to fit four of them into one.

Progress report!I've moved the distant terrain because honestly it was looking fugly up against the normal terrain, so now the world is two islands that are connected to each other, with a bridge to the mainland coming off Downtown. I've also started some of the buildings, so I can arrange them throughout Downtown and add the rabbithole buildings afterwards.

Spoiler:

Two of the mid-level starter homes. Copied straight from TS2.A cheaper starter house.Lost in Love Hedge Maze... half finished. The love heart pool is a bitch to remake. Sim Center North and Sim Center South will be left and right of it.The most architecturally unstable building ever, the Deh'Javu Modern Art Museum.Opposite is the Similar Sights Sculpture Park.Red’s Famous ‘50s Diner is now... a diner. The restaurants and clothes shops will be changed into rabbitholes or venues.Case in point, Cold Issue Clothing is now a laundromat.Go Here Sunshine Park.Lucky Shack Cards and Drink is now a watering hole.Work's started on Hans Trap Door Corp., which will be a salon. The 5-storey height limit means I've had to do a lot of editing and changing wall heights.Gothier Green Lawns is taking shape.So's the base of the Bella statue. Now I just need an actual Bella.

Wow, this is going to be REALLY cool. I mean, besides the fact that things in Sims 2 were horribly spaced out (as in, really unrealistically spaced), I might play this anyways. It would be really fun to switch between two different families.

I've been reading through this and I am so exicited to see it finished! :) It looks sooo awesome!

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I know there are troubles of more than one kind, they come from ahead and they come from behind. But I've brought a big bat, I'm all ready, you see. Now my troubles are gunna have troubles with me. ~Dr. Suess~

@Charlie: I don't remember many of them at all either. I stuck to like 2 or 3 clubs (Like the vampire one! ) and restaurants in Downtown and that was it. I had so much fun remaking the Pleasantview lots, so that should make up for my lack of experience with the others.

I've also got a really, really, really ambitious idea set up (as if remaking 4 whole neighbourhoods wasn't ambitious enough) involving Bella's disappearance. There was an adventure-based story idea I had in the back of my head for a while, but while I was working on Gothier Green Lawns, and setting up some of the larger tombs I just thought "Screw it, I'll do it." It'll be like a scavenger hunt kind of thing spanning all 4 neighbourhoods and more than likely ending up in Belladonna Cove. It will be included in a save file I'll upload after the world's finished so it will be completely optional.

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Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:18 am

Profplumbob

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Re: Sims 2 to Sims 3 Megahood

Always...always be ambitious. That's literally the best advice I can give even though I've spent the last 10 years of my life being told to "reign in my ideas and keep it simple." (this is coming from someone who went to art school for many years!) In my life through HS and college, ambitious ideas have set me apart from everyone else, taking the A while everyone else took B's because they went by the book while I went a little beyond what was asked of me. Even if my ambitious ideas aren't 100% fully realized, I'm still able to take it beyond what it would of been had I not been ambitious. So to me, a little ambition goes a long way!

I just hope they can at least appreciate what you've created, even if it isn't their play style or something they will explore. Coconut Island 3.0 would of never happened if I wasn't insanely ambitious with the idea of expanding it into what it has become. It was originally going to be only Barbary Island...then it tuned into Barbary Island & Stoney Port...then The Dunes was created, and now I've created a fun story that takes your sims through these tombs that explain the story of the world.

I say, make it apart of the world rather than an additional save file. You've already put a lot of effort and work into it, and the sims community is already going to SQUEAL over your world, so why not make it extra special with a Bella story? If you'd rather wait, release a version later as an extra "Adventure" expansion of your world...which is kind of what I wish I did with Coconut Island. I wish I kept all my insane tomb/story ideas for 4.0 and had not started all of it with 3.0...but it will be worth it, and yours will be worth it too! Tomb building is INSANELY fun and a rewarding experience once you figure it all out!